Cypriot Dialect- by Asimenia Loulaki, LLS tutor
The Greek language had always had its dialects and I understand that people can get confused as to which one to learn – Greek or Greek Cypriot. But of course the language is one, that of Modern Greek. There would be, or should be, no course books or lessons tailored for Cypriot dialect only, simply because dialects are just regional speech patterns. The lessons are based on the standard Greek grammar.
As a linguist and Greek language tutor, with no specific research on the Cypriot dialect, I would say that there are a lot of differences between Cypriot dialect and any other dialect/ language use at other parts of Greece.
I find it very important that we follow one model of a language- the standard Greek and do not try to allow so many diversities in language use. But I know it was inevitable that Cyprus went through war and foreign language influences that created a distinct vocabulary with words either of ancient Greek root or English-Greek, Asian-Greek. (The same happened to the Cretan dialect, although this has very limited vocabulary that not all Cretans use nowadays because of the people moving from north to Crete and from Crete to North of Greece).
I would advise people who are interested in learning Greek not to worry much about what lessons to follow- the lessons are standard. Tutors are trying to mention some of the differences in terms of dialect, should they know/ speak of course the Cypriot dialect. The dialect will be learnt anyway through your interaction with Cypriots.